Survey on Pagan Coming-of-Age Rituals

Sociologist Gina Oboler has done good research in the Pagan community before—I used some of her work on Pagans and environmentalism in Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America.

Now she is looking at coming-of-age rituals, and if you can offer some experience-based responses, please fill out her questionnaire, below, and send her your responses via email.

Hi, everyone!

I’m working on a research project in which I’m interviewing people in the Pagan community about coming-of-age rituals for adolescents, trying to learn if there is any consensus about the importance of such rituals, who does them, what forms they take, what they are meant to accomplish, etc. I’d like to get beyond my own personal network and the connecting networks, so I would be very grateful if folks could circulate my questions and my e-mail address, and encourage people with some knowledge of the topic to respond to me in writing.

Gina

roboler [at] ursinus [dot] edu

QUESTIONS ON COMING-OF-AGE RITUALS, PAGAN COMMUNITY

1. What experience of coming-of-age rituals have you had?

2. Do you think it is important to have puberty rituals? Why or why not?

3. At what age should such a ritual take place? Is a single ritual event sufficient, if done well, or should there be a sequence of education and ritual occasions?

4. What do you think they accomplish for the young person(s) involved?

5. Describe rituals you yourself have conducted/designed/helped design/attended. (Or rituals you have heard about from others.)

6. What do you consider key elements that need to be included in the rituals?

7. Following is a list of goals that various commentators have suggested coming-of-age rituals aim to accomplish. Please comment on some or all, including how important you think each is, and why. Which are the most important goals?
a. Formalizing an individual’s changed status in a community.
b. Testing/proving the individual worthy of the new status.
c. Subjecting the individual to rigors that encourage him/her to value the status.
d. Psychologically transforming the individual.
e. Clarifying the individual’s life-goals.
f. Encouraging the individual to accept greater responsibility (along with privilege).
g. Strengthening the individual’s commitment to a particular group or tradition.
h. Creating group solidarity among those who go through the ritual together.
i. Others?

8. How do these elements relate specifically to a Wiccan/Pagan belief system – or could they be similar in any tradition?

9. Are different kinds of rites important for boys and girls? If so, different in what ways? Why?

10. What marked your own personal transition from childhood to adolescence or adulthood? Do you think you would have benefitted from a formal ritual? How, and what would you have liked it to be like?

11. Are there other important issues surrounding this topic that you think should be discussed that we haven’t touched on yet?